Mumbai Indians skipper Hardik Pandya will be forced to miss the opening match of IPL 2025 season after maintaining slow over-rate in the last match of IPL 2024.
Team India all-rounder Hardik Pandya became the world No. 1 all-rounder once again in the ICC T20I ranking on Wednesday. But there is some bad news in store for the Mumbai Indians captain ahead of the upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 season.
Hardik will miss the IPL 2025 opener for MI after copping a one-match ban as his team maintained a slow over-rate for their final game of the IPL 2024 season against Lucknow Super Giants at the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai earlier this year. Since this was the final game of the season, according to Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) regulations, Hardik will miss the opening game of the next season – IPL 2025 – even if he had moved to a new team.
It was the third time in IPL 2024 that MI had failed to maintain a minimum over-rate. As a result, Hardik, apart from the one-match ban, was fined Rs 30 lakhs and the rest of the playing 12, including the ‘Impact Player’, were each individually fined either Rs 12 lakhs or 50 per cent of their respective match fees, whichever is lesser.
Hardik Pandya at the 🔝
Tilak Varma’s massive jump 🤯
Sanju Samson’s blitz pays off 👊Big gains for 🇮🇳 players following the T20I triumph in South Africa ➡ pic.twitter.com/61EKSpunUd
— ICC (@ICC) November 20, 2024
Mumbai Indians had a forgettable season under Hardik Pandya’s captaincy. The 18-run loss to LSG in their last match meant MI finished with just four wins from their 14 games and ended up at the bottom of the IPL 2024 points table.
Hardik, who had come in as a pre-season trade and had taken over captaincy from Rohit Sharma, was booed by the Wankhede crowd throughout the tournament. On the field, he scored 216 runs at an average of 18.00 and a strike rate of 143.04. With the ball, he took 11 wickets at an economy of 10.75.
But he managed to turn the sentiment of the Indian cricket fans with his match-winning performance in the ICC T20 World Cup 2024 final to lead the team to victory. Hardik has enjoyed a stellar international season – especially in T20 cricket and his fine performance in the four-match T20 series against South Africa, which India won 3-1, means that he has regained the position as world No. 1 T20I all-rounder.
Mumbai Indians retained Hardik Pandya for Rs 16.35 crore, same as Suryakumar Yadav while former skipper Rohit Sharma was retained for Rs 16.3 crore. Pacer Jasprit Bumrah was retained for Rs 18 crore while world No. 3 T20I batter Tilak Varma was retained for Rs 8 crore ahead of the IPL 2025 mega auction on November 24 and 25.
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